Who is In Charge Here?

I’m sure by now you are all familiar with the story of the man in D.C. who saved the life of an 11-year old who was being attacked by several pit bulls, only to have his guns confiscated and face a large fine.

“The horrific incident that spawned the investigation occurred on a Sunday afternoon in late January as 11-year-old Jayeon Simon and his friend rode bicycles near Eighth and Sheridan streets Northwest in the Brightwood neighborhood. According to court records filed in D.C. Superior Court, three unleashed pit bulls pounced on Jayeon and attacked him. Seeing the attack, Mr. Srigley went inside his home to get his Ruger 9 mm pistol while several other men hopped over fences to get away from the dogs, court records state. From behind the wooden fence of his front lawn, Mr. Srigley began firing at the dogs. His shots attracted the attention of a Metropolitan Police Department officer on bicycle patrol nearby, and he also opened fire on the dogs, killing the other two.”

There is a very disturbing aspect to this story. Let us consider the incident itself. Three pre-teenaged kids were innocently riding their bikes when they were attacked by a pack of pit bulls. These dogs, no matter what their supporters claim, have a documented record of going postal and attacking, and frequently killing, other animals and people who happen to be in the vicinity, generally without provocation.

This is not particularly surprising, given that they were bred to do just that. When this happens, they seem to have a one –track mind, in that there seems to be no way to call them off once they get started with their deadly attack.

Knowing that, other people who witnessed the attack ran away, but Mr. Srigley ran into his home, got his gun, and started shooting at the dogs. Apparently a nearby policeman attracted by the shots, eventually joined Mr. Srigley in shooting the animals. Obviously Mr. Srigley was aware that there were only minutes or seconds to act, and no time to call 911; there would have been little remaining of young Jayeon by the time they eventually arrived. The policeman who joined Srigley was unaware of the incident, and without hearing the shots, would have been unable to assist either.

Srigley is, by any account, a hero. So what is his reward for this valor? He gets a $1,000 fine, has his guns confiscated, and is supposed to be grateful that the generous government dropped what could have been seven criminal charges against him.

Criminal charges for what? For saving the boy’s life?

It is ironic, but logical, that gun-prohibiting and registering laws seem to be in place in the cities like D.C. with the highest crime rates – Obama’s home town of Chicago comes immediately to mind too. Clearly criminals, who do not obey laws by definition, have a field day in cities where they can expect no resistance from an unarmed citizenry.

On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Heller v. District of Columbia, which struck down provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 as unconstitutional, determined that handguns are “arms” for the purposes of the Second Amendment, found that the District of Columbia’s regulations act was an unconstitutional banning, struck down the part that any firearms must be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock,” and removed the outright ban on owning handguns except for those registered prior to 1975.

Unfortunately, the attitude of the government in D.C. is much the same as in Illinois, where we see Governor Quinn vowing to fight the law just passed 85-30 to end Illinois’ status as the only state in the nation without a concealed carry law.

Although not blessed with the ability to make Obama-styled “executive orders” that completely contradict law and the Constitution itself, he will use taxpayer dollars to fund a huge PR campaign to brainwash the low information voters in hopes of getting his way.

In a similar vein we saw New York Mayor Bloomberg have a melt-down that included open threats and several f-bombs at Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman who had just won a court victory against Bloomberg’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” scheme, another “green” initiative which undoubtedly included vehicles with cup holders that cannot accommodate containers holding more than 8 ounces of fluid.

What is the relationship between these stories? It is simply that our politicians have forgotten that they are supposed to be working for us instead of the other way around.

We live in a land with so many laws that literally nobody knows how many there are. In 2010, for example, 40,627 laws were passed, which is roughly 800 per state. How could anyone possibly obey all these laws, even if he wanted to? Most people in the U.S. are law abiding citizens, but with untold millions of laws on the books, how could they possibly obey them all?

In D.C., they can find seven criminal charges to file against a hero because they are on the books. The fact that they did not file is mute testimony to the fact that although it would have been a travesty of justice, they could have been filed anyway. It could potentially have cost our hero his savings, his home, and his job to try to defend himself if they had pursued them, and jail time if he had lost.

An anti-gun mayor like Bloomberg, or judge or prosecutor could have destroyed this man’s life simply because he did not obey some law that was probably unconstitutional and of which he was unaware.

The bottom line is that “we the people” are no longer in charge. We elect government officials, but many seem to feel that rather than being elected, they were anointed to bring about “fundamental change”. This is the pattern of the last five years, and the result has been that we no longer recognize America.

I remember the Superman TV show I watched as a kid always ended with Superman in front of the flag supporting, “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”. A casual glance at the news shows that there is precious truth or justice coming from the government, particularly the Federal government, and that the American Way seems to be devolving into autocracy and tyranny.